Ecologia dos saberes em espaços de aprendizagem com cartografia social experiências vivenciadas a partir da extensão universitária e da iniciação à pesquisa científica junto à Comunidade do Assentamento Padre Cleides - Santa Helena / PB.

Abstract

Several mapping initiatives that aim to include local populations in map production processes have spread throughout the world, especially since the 1990s. These are peoples and communities in conflict situations that have been producing their own maps, portraying their daily lives and their references, on a cartographic basis (Acselrad, 2013). Currently, several experiences coexist that propose an alternative iconography to that of the cartographic conventions considered official, and that question not only “what is represented”, but also “how and why it is represented”, investing in symbols and icons of symbolic and political value (inseparable dimensions) for each group (Almeida, 2008). From this perspective, this research aimed to analyze the actions promoted during the Social Cartography process promoted through extension and scientific initiation actions of the university with the community of the Padre Cleides Rural Settlement, located in the city of Santa Helena-PB, in the period of 2023 and 2024, during the validity of these programs. Social Cartography allows us to access participatory and collaborative methodologies that end up providing spaces for learning and exchanging knowledge among the different subjects who participate in the process of self-mapping, as well as bringing us closer to knowledge about the territory that only the subjects of the community have. In this process, the map itself is not the only result. By involving the community in the mapping process, social cartography transforms the territory into a dynamic space for exchanging knowledge, promoting dialogue between local knowledge and scientific practices, which reverberate in a process of self-management of the peasant territory of the Padre Cleides settlement. This approach is aligned with Santos' (2013) concept of ecology of knowledge, which values the interaction between different forms of knowledge. The structure of the chapters starts with the struggle for the community's land, goes through the entire cartographic process until we reach a more critical analysis of the possibilities of knowledge production that occurs from this exchange between the community and the university, with an emphasis on the experience lived by the researcher during the research.